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+ These are some of the most common things that can be done with ABC. For all the details, see the full documentation.
+Chord symbols can be placed over the staff to indicate what chords the accompanist should play. These chords are + played by the MIDI player, too. Chords are created by putting any string inside double quote marks. There is no error + checking of these strings. They are just printed as is. Many common patterns are understood by the MIDI player.
+{{abcString}}
+
+
+ Here's a list of the chord types that are understood by the playback system:
+| Suffix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (none) or M | Major chord |
| maj7 or ∆7 | Major seventh chord (Option + j) |
| 6 | Major sixth chord |
| 7 | Dominant seventh chord |
| + | Augmented chord |
| +7 or aug7 or 7#5 or 7+5 | Augmented seventh chord |
| - or m | Minor chord |
| -6 or m6 | Minor sixth chord |
| -7 or m7 | Minor seventh chord |
| dim or ° | Diminished chord (Option + Shift + 8) |
| dim7 or °7 | Diminished seventh chord |
| ø7 | Half-diminished seventh chord (Option + o) |
| 9 | Ninth chord |
| 11 | Eleventh chord |
| 13 | Thirteenth chord |
| 7b9 | Dominant seventh, flat nine chord |
| 7b5 | Dominant seventh, flat five chord |
| 9#5 or 9+5 | Dominant seventh, sharp five chord |
| sus4 | Sustained four chord |
| 7sus4 | Dominant seventh, sustained four chord |
| m7sus4 | Minor seventh, sustained four chord |
Many different styles of bar lines are possible. First and second endings are also possible. A chart follows with all + of the commonly used bar lines.
+| Bar | Meaning |
|---|---|
| | | bar line |
| |] | thin-thick double bar line |
| || | thin-thin double bar line |
| [| | thick-thin double bar line |
| |: | start of repeated section |
| :| | end of repeated section |
| :: | start & end of two repeated sections |
| |1 | start of first ending |
| :|2 | start of second ending |
Beaming is done whenever possible. So whenever there are more than one note that is shorter than a quarter note, + they will be beamed together. If you don't want beaming, then you can break the beam with a space between notes. That + is, there is no beaming done over a space.
+{{abcString}}
+
+ Anything after a single percent sign (%) on a line is ignored. That means you can freely add comments about your + tune to make it easier to read.
+A tune ends when the first blank line is encountered, but if you'd like to use a blank line, the next best thing is + a line that contains only a percent sign.
+If a line starts with two percent signs (%%) what follows is a formatting directive. There are many of these. See the + full documentation for more details.
+{{abcString}}
+
+
+ There are many possible extra symbols that can be added. A few of the most popular ones are demonstrated below. + See the full documentation if you don't see one you want to use.
+{{abcString}}
+
+ The note durations are specified by a number or fraction after the note. The note length that corresponds to 1, or not + specifying a duration is in the "L:" header field. A good strategy for choosing a value for the L: field is to see if there are + more eight notes or quarter notes, and set the L: field to that.
+Note that "/2" can be abbreviated to "/"
+Triplets are indicated by starting the three notes with "(3". Note that the subject of triplets and other duples are + complicated, so if you want to do anything more elaborate than that, see the official documentation, linked to above.
+The following example shows the way to get the different durations for both values of L:
+ +Grace notes are represented by notes inside of curly braces. They are attached to a following note and printed small.
+{{abcString}}
+
+
+ Each tune needs to start off with a set of headers. See the full documentation for a detailed discussion of what + headers are possible. Described below are the most used header elements. Headers always start with a capital + letter as the first character on a line and a colon as the second letter.
+Header fields that appear before any of the music:
+| Field | Typical Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| X: | 1 | Must be the first line of each tune. The value it is given is not used anywhere. |
| T: | Twinkle, Twinkle | This appears as a large title on top of the music. |
| C: | Anonymous | This appears on top of the music on the right side. |
| L: | 1/4 or 1/8 | Which duration is the default. Typically this is either a quarter note or an eighth note. |
| M: | 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, C, or C| | A time signature. Typical ones are shown, but there are many that are accepted. |
| Q: | 1/4=120 | The tempo of the piece. Typically the beat is chosen for before the equal sign, and the beats per minute is chosen to the right of the equal sign. |
| K: | D or Dm | The key, starting with a letter from A to G, then possibly having an "m" to indicate a minor key. Note that many other modes and many other parameters are accepted on this line, so see the full documentation. |
{{abcString}}
+
+
+ Header fields that are interspersed in the music:
+| Field | Typical Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| V: | alto | See the section on voices for more details. |
| P: | Chorus | This will be printed between staves and can be any string you like. |
Lyrics can appear under the notes by interweaving a separate line that starts with "w:". That is, create a line of music + like you normally do, then have a line that starts with "w:" and put the lyrics there. Each word of the lyrics corresponds + to a note in the music.
+If that were all you could do with lyrics, that would be pretty limiting. In songs, there is not a one-to-one correspondence + between words and notes: words have more than one syllable and each syllable is a note, and sometimes a syllable is stretched + over more than one note.
+The following chart shows how the following problems are taken care of:
+| Character | Meaning |
|---|---|
| - | (hyphen) break between syllables within a word |
| _ | (underscore) previous syllable is to be held for an extra note |
| * | one note is skipped (i.e. * is equivalent to a blank syllable) |
| ~ | appears as a space; aligns multiple words under one note |
| \- | appears as hyphen; aligns multiple syllables under one note |
| | | advances to the next bar |
{{abcString}}
+
+ + There are a couple of ways to represent multiple notes that are playing at the same time. If the notes are from different + voices then see the section on voices. If the notes come from the same instrument (like a piano or guitar), they can + be formed by putting the notes that should be stacked inside square brackets. +
+{{abcString}}
+
+ Pitches are specifed with the note name.
+A capital letter is an octave below a lower case letter. If a comma appears + after a letter, then the note is an octave below that. If an apostrophe appears after a note, then the note is raised an octave.
+Rests are specified with the "z" character. The different shaped rests are depend on the duration. (See the duration section for more details.)
+See the following example for specifying pitches:
+ + +Accidentals (that are not in the key signature) are specified with an underscore for flat, an equal sign for natural, and + a caret for sharp. See the following example:
+ +Ties are between two notes of the same pitch. That means that it sounds as one note. Slurs are between two notes of + different pitches. Ties and slurs looks the same but they are handled slightly different by the MIDI and animation routines. + A tie is expressed by a hyphen between two notes. A slur is expressed by putting the notes to be slurred in parentheses.
+{{abcString}}
+
+ There are many possibilities for using multiple voices. See the full documentation if the following use cases don't + fit your needs.
+There are three elements involved. There is the "%%staves" directive for specifying which voices go in which staff, + the "V:" field in the header for defining the voices, and the "V:" field in the body for specifying which voice a line of music goes with.
+It is easy to make mistakes and mis-align your music when using multiple voices. Make sure each voice has the correct + number of beats and the same bar lines and repeat marks.
+A piano score has two staves and two voices: left hand and right hand. There is a brace connecting the two staves. The + top staff is treble clef and the bottom staff is bass clef. Here's a simple example of setting that up:
+{{abcPiano}}
+
+ If all instruments go on separate staves, then the "%%staves" directive is not needed.
+Note that you can write the music in concert pitch but have it appear for Bb or Eb instruments by using the "score=_B" + or "score=_E" option. (You may change the octave that it transposes to by using a lower case "_b" or "_e".)
+{{abcScore}}
+
+ Sometimes parts should be on the same staff. In four-part harmony, typically there are two staves and two voices + on each staff.
+{{abcHarmony}}
+
+ + The input is in the form of ABC Notation and it is processed with + abcjs. +
+✽ This website does not use cookies or collect any information about you or the music you create - everything you enter stays + in the browser. Be sure to save any music you create elsewhere! (localStorage is used for your convenience to save your current work.)
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